John Pletz On Technology

Textura ready to ring up an IPO this week

Textura Corp. is set to go public this week in the first Chicago-area tech IPO in more than 18 months.

The Deerfield-based maker of project-management software for the construction industry, is expected to raise about $56 million, selling 4 million shares at $13 to $15 each, according to Greenwich, Conn.-based Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser that tracks offerings. At the top of that range, the company would be worth about $323 million after the offering.

It's expected to begin trading Friday under the symbol TXTR on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company declined to comment ahead of the offering.

Textura, which took advantage of new securities laws that allow small companies to do much of the preparation for an IPO in private, is benefiting from an improving IPO market. The number of U.S. public offerings that have been completed is up 7.2 percent to 74 from a year ago, according to Renaissance. IPO filings are up 22 percent.

“The IPO market has been strong in 2013 and, if May's activity is any indicator, we are on track to see the busiest year since 2007,” says Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance, whose global IPO fund that invests in new issues is up 22 percent so far this year. “Returns have been strong.”

Tech offerings account for 13.5 percent of IPOs, the third most active sector after financial services and health care/biotech. Within tech, the appetite has shifted from consumer social media, such as Groupon, Facebook, Zynga and LinkedIn, to less sexy, behind-the-scenes business technology, such as cloud-based software services, which account for half this year's tech deals.

If it succeeds, nine-year-old Textura will be the first Chicago-area technology IPO since Groupon Inc. raised $805 million in November 2011, according to New York-based researcher Dealogic. The region has had just two tech IPOs in the past five years. Besides Groupon Inc., Envestnet Inc. raised $72 million in 2010.

Overall, there have been eight local IPOs since Groupon. The most recent was Schaumburg-based Global Brass & Copper Holdings Inc., a private-equity spinoff from Olin Corp., which sold 8.05 million shares at $11 apiece May 23.